1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air bag device that deploys an air bag upward along a window from below the window.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-227662, filed Aug. 5, 2005, Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-227663, filed Aug. 5, 2005, and Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-227664, filed Aug. 5, 2005, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of Related Art
Among air bag devices used as occupant protective devices mounted in a vehicle, there is known a door-mounted air bag device. As such an air bag device, there is known for example the air bag device disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2941879, in which an air bag disposed between an inner panel of a door and a lining that covers the cabin interior side thereof is deployed upward along the inside surface of the window.
As shown in FIG. 17, in a typical structure of a vehicle door, members are provided for absorbing the impact when an occupant slams into the lining 500. Specifically, an upper impact absorption member 502 for protecting the shoulder of the occupant is provided at the upper part between the lining 500 and the inner panel 501. Also, a lower impact absorption member 503 for protecting the hip of an occupant is provided at the lower part between the lining 500 and the inner panel 501. When the aforementioned door mounted air bag device is provided in such a door, due to arrangement space considerations it is provided in place of the upper impact absorption member 502 for protecting a shoulder of an occupant. For this reason, when the occupant slams into the lining 500, the impact near the hip will be absorbed by the lower impact absorption member 503, and the impact near the shoulder will be absorbed by the lower part of the air bag. Thus, it is possible to sufficiently absorb an impact even with such an impact-absorbing structure. However, if further impact absorption were made possible its commercial value could be raised further.
Also, in the air bag device disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent No. 2860286, the air bag is housed in a housing portion along a border of the vehicle window, so that when the air bag deploys, it deploys upward from below the window and along the inside surface of the window of the vehicle. When the air bag deploys, the upper portion of the air bag is inflated toward both sides along the window. At this time, centered on a coupling portion between the air bag and the housing portion, there is a risk of one axial end of the inflating bag tilting in an upward direction. However, an attachment device is conceived to prevent this tilting. Specifically, a structure is adopted consisting of a fabric flap that couples a portion of the air bag extending from the lower edge to the side edge thereof and the door in the front part of the lower window frame. This fabric flap projects so as not to overlap the air bag.
Such a structure can prevent tilting of the inflating portion, centered on the coupling portion between the air bag and the housing portion. However, when the air bag deploys, its position in the approaching/separating direction with respect to the window cannot be controlled.
Moreover, as another air bag device that deploys an air bag along the inside surface of a window, as shown, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2004-67045, there is a roof side air bag that deploys the air bag downwardly from a roof side rail above the window. In order to stabilize the direction of deployment of the air bag, a member called a tension line is provided that couples a pillar and the air bag.
However, when using a roof side air bag and a door-mounted air bag device (that is, an air bag device that deploys an air bag upwardly from below a window) in combination, problems arise. That is, providing the tension line for the roof side air bag leads to structural difficulties that cause the deployment direction of the air bag to become unstable.
The present invention was achieved in view of the aforementioned circumstances and has as its first object to provide an air bag device that deploys an air bag upward from below a window and enables greater impact absorption.
A second object of the present invention is to provide an air bag device that can control the attitude in the approaching/separating direction with respect to the window during deployment of the air bag.
A third object of the present invention is to provide an air bag device that can stabilize the deployment direction of the air bag even when deploying the air bag upward from below a window.